A LEGENDARY British pop artist has donated his latest work to a Hampshire university.

Artist Sir Peter Blake has given one of his most unusual pictures to the University of Southampton.

The 'Arrival of the Smart Meters' is the work that the artist created to mark the coming of smart meters in every British house, as part of the digitization of the national energy system.

The device will give households the opportunity to see how much energy they are using in pounds and pence has inspired the artist.

Mr Blake – probably most famous for designing the cover for The Beatles' album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band –has transformed the displays into colourful people.

He said: “The smart meters suggested little bodies to me, so I turned them into people, symbolising the installers who are fitting the meters into every home in Great Britain. I love that something that can be seen as rather workaday is being introduced with art, and Arrival of the Smart Meters is an interesting way of highlighting its national significance.”

The print will now be displayed in the University’s John Hansard Gallery.

Stephen Foster, director of John Hansard Gallery at the University of Southampton, said: “Peter Blake is perhaps the greatest living British pop artist, and it is so important that his work, using everyday images, has such an appeal from the 1960s (when Britain first invented the term ‘pop art’) to the present day.

"The introduction of smart meters is an important contemporary issue, because the way in which we are charged for our energy has become a highly controversial subject, and celebrating the introduction of smart meters in this light hearted manner will resound with many people.”

Claire Maugham, director of policy and communications at Smart Energy GB, said: "Sir Peter Blake has brought smart meters and the national rollout to life in such a creative way. I hope these pictures inspire people around the country to find out more about how they can get their smart meter.”